CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Sierra Club is weighing its options on how it will take part in the late-November public hearing scheduled by the federal Environmental Protection Agency in Charleston on the repeal of the Clean Power Plan.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced the Nov. 28-29 hearing Thursday.
“The EPA is headed to the heart of coal country to hear from those most impacted by the CPP and get their comments on the proposed Repeal Rule. The agency looks forward to hearing from all interested stakeholders,” Pruitt said in a news release.
Sierra Club national organizer and state resident Bill Price told MetroNews Friday the statement by Pruitt that West Virginia was the most impacted by the Clean Power Power was “offensive.”
“In some ways that is true but there are communities all across the country that are directly impacted by the Clean Power Plan in positive ways just like here in West Virginia,” Price said. “That’s a sign to us that this could very well be a sham of a hearing for the Trump administration to come to a state that basically is where their base is at.”
The EPA has set aside 16 hours for testimony and said it could extend the hearing for a third day if there are a lot of speakers. The Sierra Club plans to be there but the organization’s form of response hasn’t been decided, Price said.
“We’re not just going to let them come here and have their show without some sort of response but we are considering over the next few days what that response would look like,” Price said. “This is part of the Trump administration’s attack on the Obama legacy and also it’s attack on middle class communities.”
According to Price, the Clean Power Plan is about cleaning up those communities from dangerous emissions and making them healthy.
“The EPA is ignoring that,” he said.